Fried chicken chain KFC to kick off five-year expansion in UK and Ireland with
£21m investment

Fried chicken chain KFC is planning to create up to 6,500 new jobs with the opening of 150 additional outlets in the UK and Ireland over the next five years.

Martin Shuker, managing director KFC UK and Ireland, reveals the plans in an interview in The Telegraph.

KFC will on Monday announce that it is investing £21m this year in opening 32 new branches that will create 1,300 jobs and increase its UK and Ireland workforce to 25,300.

Mr Shuker, who has overseen eight years of consecutive sales and profit growth at his operation, says that looking further ahead the chain’s expansion of about 30 new stores a year can continue for at least another five years.

That would mean 150 new outlets and up to 6,500 new jobs, including this year’s openings. A programme to refurbish 220 branches will cost KFC another £40m this year.

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The chain already receives 400,000 job applications a year in the UK and Ireland every year. In the current financial year, it has had 1,200 applicants for ten graduate positions.

“The reality is that we could absolutely keep growing at this rate for the next five years and longer,” says Mr Shuker, “because there’s demand for KFC in geographies where we are not yet present.

“We also have the opportunity to evolve our restaurants to offer greater convenience and access to the brand.

“If you were to take the trajectory of what we’ve done in the last five years and fast-forward, that would not be misleading in terms of what we want to do in the next five years. It’s a line of good, consistent growth.”

Founded by Colonel Harland D Sanders in Kentucky in the 1950s and known for its “Finger Lickin' Good" slogan until it shortened this to “So Good” three years ago, KFC has been on British high streets since opening its first UK outlet in Preston in 1965.

During the past decade, however, KFC UK and Ireland has nearly doubled the number of chicken products it sells to 690m from 379m in 2004.

Sales of hot chicken wings have increased from 60m a year to 135m, while overall UK and Ireland revenues have nearly doubled from about £500m to close to £1bn.

Annual customer numbers have increased by 32pc to 143m, the current UK and Ireland workforce is up from 18,650 to 24,000 and its estate of restaurants stands at 858, compared to 667 ten years ago. About 70pc of the branches are run by franchisees.

Mr Shuker believes there is plenty of more room for growth. “Other quick service chains have many more restaurant outlets than we do,” he says, “so as long as we can keep growing and make sure that our offering is appealing to consumers, I think the ceiling is quite a long way away.”

“The opportunity we have is about whether we can innovate in different restaurants that might hopefully be successful as well and could allow us to increase our rate of growth. That’s what we’d like to do.”